The Raven
by perfectlyawful
Summary: The death of a Professor drastically changes something in the-boy-who-lived and Hermione can only watch as he sprials downward towards his destruction. Hermione's POV.


_Hallo my readers! This is my first story ever. Well, it's not really a story, more like a __**wedstrijd**__ (that's Dutch by the way, my English is still a little iffy and i can't find the right word...drabble?) I'm currently taking a English writing course and it was suggested that this was a good way to work on and improve my grammar. Aaaanyway, I hope you guys like it; if not, tough-pudding. Though I would appreciate it if you didn't flame me; I'm quite emotional and might accidentally short-circuit my computer from my tears of despair if I have to read a scathing review. Enjoy!__** Blij zijn!**_

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**Disclaimer: **don't own any of the mentioned characters from Harry Potter, they belong to Rowling.

**Warning: **Character(s) death and general angstyness

But the raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only  
That one word,  
as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.  
Nothing further then he  
uttered; not a feather then he fluttered;  
Till I scarcely more than muttered,  
"Other friends have flown before;  
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes  
have flown before."  
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."

The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

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Hermione was worried. Actually, she had passed worried about two weeks ago. Now she was scared. Something was wrong with Harry.

For the past month he had seemed…different, not quite right.

Hermione had first started noticing the differences in her friend a few months ago. They hadn't been monumental or obvious things, just small things, like how Harry didn't talk as much, didn't eat as much, was always forgetting things, and was constantly staring off into space. In the beginning, none of it had really alarmed her; it was just Harry being Harry. With all of the stress that he was constantly under she didn't blame him for getting a little stressed out.

At first she had thought that it was because of Professor Snape's death. None of them really knew what happened; just that one day Snape went to a Death Eater meeting, Harry disappeared a few days later and then suddenly reappeared covered in blood saying that Snape was dead. He had refused to say what had happened and while the Order had grieved for their lost spy, he was quickly forgotten about by all except Professor Dumbledore.

She had started noticing the small changes a bit after that. But when she had gathered her courage to question Harry about Professor Snape he had just given her a small smile and said that he wasn't sad about it, in fact, he had said that it wasn't that big of a deal that he was dead.

To say that Hermione had been shocked would have been an understatement, she had even felt a little angry after he had said that; she might not have like the man but it was proper to mourn his loss if only because he had been on their side.

She had noticed that Harry and Professor Snape had become somewhat civil to each other a few months ago and had thought that he would be at least somewhat affected by the man's sudden death. After that she hadn't brought it up again. Then, about a month ago, things had taken a turn. In hindsight, she should have realized that her friend had already been lost by then.

It had all started on a regular fall afternoon when her, Harry and Ron had been outside studying by the lake. She couldn't really recall what Ron and Harry had been talking about, Quidditch most likely, but she remembered that she had been reading _The Linguistics of Lost Charms and their Evolution_ when Ron had suddenly called out to her in a panic. She had brandished her wand out thinking the worst only to see Harry smiling at her and Ron looking at him like he was about to die.

"Something's wrong with Harry!" Ron had yelled out hysterically. She could still remember the panic and worry that had filled Ron's voice. Even now, the urgency with which he had spoken still echoed in her head.

Hermione had called Harry's name herself and when Harry didn't answer she realized that though he was facing her he wasn't looking at her; he was looking over her shoulder, wearing a goofy smile.

"Look!" Harry suddenly pointed behind her. "Look at that Raven! Isn't it beautiful!" he had exclaimed, finally looking at them both with a wide grin.

When Hermione looked to where he had pointed there had been nothing but the lake behind her. She looked back at Ron and raised an eyebrow in question only to receive a confused look back. Ron hadn't seen anything either.

Harry had continued to babble on about 'a pretty black Raven' for the next five minutes and when they said that there was nothing there Harry had just laughed and said to stop messing around. Then he went back to writing his essay as if the whole incident had never occurred. When Ron had questioned him, 'What the bloody hell was that all about?', Harry had just smiled and said that the Raven had flown away. That had been the first time.

For the next few days Harry would randomly point somewhere and declare that the Raven had reappeared. When she and Ron had told Harry that maybe he should tell Dumbledore he was seeing things no one else could he got angry and yelled at them that they were just jealous that the Raven liked him better. She and Ron had backed off after that.

Then the Raven began to talk to him. Hermione didn't dare voice her concerns because the only time that she ever saw Harry truly smile anymore was when he was talking about the Raven. It had been hard to sit back and watch her friend talk nonsense but she never said a word to him for fear of him lashing out at her again.

But the things began to spiral even more out of control.

She and Ron had had enough when Harry came back to the dorm one day, late at night, covered in dirt with scratches and cuts all over his body; his clothes speckled with blood. When they had frantically asked him where he had been and what had happened he joyously replied; 'I've been playing with my Raven.' The next day she and Ron had gone to see Dumbledore.

When he had assured them that it was probably just Harry's abstract way of coping with the war and that they should give him some space, they had left the Headmaster's office feeling as if they had solved nothing. Now, as Hermione stared at her friend sitting across the table from her, she felt a twist in her gut.

Harry was smiling at an empty spot on the table and twirling the ham's carving knife in one hand. She couldn't recall when she had become afraid of Harry; maybe it was last week when he had bluntly told her that his Raven didn't like it when she asked questions so she better stop. It wasn't until the end of dinner that Harry finally looked up.

"I think my Raven needs his mate." She glanced at Ron and was relieved to see that he too looked apprehensive.

"That's nice Harry," he said. Lately the slightest wrong word would either send Harry into a fit of rage or break him down into a waterfall of tears.

"I think a nice smaller mate would suit him well, don't you think? He won't admit it, but I think he gets lonely when I'm not around," Harry said, looking at a spot near Ron's hand with affection.

"That's lovely Harry," Hermione said. She felt a pressure starting to build behind her eyes as she looked at the-boy-who-lived, even when he was talking to an imaginary bird he was still trying to make it happy.

"My Raven deserves to have his mate; I think I'll get his tonight. Yes, a nice smaller Raven for him. I don't think that he would do well with a larger one, he's quite full of pride you know, he needs a mate that he can protect, that makes him feel worthy," Harry rambled on and then abruptly stood up from his still-full plate and walked out of the Dining Hall.

She and Ron didn't follow. They wouldn't be able to anyway; Harry somehow always managed to evade them. They knew he would show up later tonight in the common room covered in new cuts and bruises, bloody clothes and with a big smile on his face.

Hermione felt like crying; she was watching her best friend slowly lose himself and everyone but Ron and her were blind to it. His roommates never questioned Harry's strange behavior, the years had taught them to ignore anything unusual; the rest of the house never paid him much attention; the other houses only either saw their Savior or 'Potter', the staff was so lenient and caring for their Golden Boy that they never truly paid him mind, and Dumbledore was too racked with guilt over everything that he had put Harry through to try and interfere in his personal life again.

Hermione and Ron did their nightly vigil in the common room that night waiting for their best friend to show up with that faraway look in his eyes. They waited all night long for him to show up with his smile talking about his beautiful Raven. They even waited when the rest of the dorm got up and readied for the day for him to show up covered in newly spilt blood.

When Harry didn't show up for breakfast they silently went to class hoping he was okay. When he was still absent by the time lunch came they told the Headmaster and prayed that he was alright. They skipped their afternoon classes and searched the school with the rest of the staff.

It was a cruel joke from the universe that she and Ron, his first and best friends, found him first.

At first she thought that he was sleeping, he was sitting against a large willow tree facing the lake with a book opened next to him. When they got closer Hermione felt like her world had been shattered and she vaguely heard a strangled moan of grief come from Ron. She fell to her knees and grabbed Harry's pale face between her hands; he was ice cold. She felt something seep through her jeans and looked down at the pool of blood that she was kneeling in.

Hermione wasn't sure how long she stayed there screaming Harry's name, hoping it would somehow make him open hid eyes, but she knew it wasn't that long until Dumbledore and the rest of the staff finally appeared.

She vaguely heard McGonagall's cry of anguish, Flitwick's high-pitched squeak of despair, and Dumbledore's quiet, 'oh my dear boy'. She was pushed away from Harry's body and nearly tripped over the book that was still lying open on the grass. Hermione looked at it and more tears fell down her face. She tugged on Ron's sleeve and together they flipped through the sketch book. Pages and pages were filled with sketches and drawings of the same black Raven.

"Albus, in his hand," she heard McGonagall whisper. Hermione's eyes were drawn to the sharp blade in Harry's right hand and she flinched; she had already seen the damage it had caused to Harry's neck.

She silently watched, tears running down her cheeks, as Dumbledore slowly pulled a crumpled piece of paper from Harry's left hand and smoothed it out. His voice was a rough as he read aloud.

"I've gone to join my mate. My Raven isn't lonely anymore."

The staff turned to look at her and Ron, their eyes desperately seeking answers. Hermione heard Ron gasp and her hand flew to her mouth as her knees gave way again and she crumpled to the ground, grabbing onto Ron and bringing him down with her.

"He- he- oh god!" Ron choked out.

Hermione tried to speak but she couldn't get anything past the lump in her throat other than a few strangled wails. Then a loud 'Caw!' pierced through the afternoon sky.

A small black Raven flew down from the clouds and landed on the leg of Harry's lifeless body. The Raven tilted its head to the side with a jerk and then another 'caw!' rang through the air again.

"Merlin!" she heard someone, she couldn't tell who, whisper.

Hermione felt her jaw go slack. The small black Raven had a white lightning bolt shaped mark on its forehead.

"Harry?" she heard herself say, and somewhere in the back of her mind she registered the fact that she didn't feel the slightest bit of embarrassment at calling the bird that. The Raven gave a small hop, looked directly at her, and gave another shrieking 'caw!'. As she saw Dumbledore start to move forward towards the small Raven, another deeper sound reverberated through their ears coming from up above them.

"CA CAW!"

Up in the willow tree, on one of the lower branches, directly above all of their heads, was a large black Raven with a long sharp beak. It's head turned to the side and it stared down at them through a large, inky black eye.

"CAW!' the large Raven shrieked out again. Immediately, the smaller Raven's attention was focused on the new arrival and it gave a call in return.

Hermione felt Ron's arm tighten around hers and she stared unabashedly at the new Raven.

"You don't think- I mean-" Ron said quietly in her ear, his voice still hoarse from crying.

The smaller Raven took off into the air and was quickly followed by the larger one. They flew a few lazy circles around each other, crying out into the darkening sky in unmistakable delight and then flew off over the lake until they were just small specks in the distance.

Before that day, Hogwarts' grounds had never been host to a Raven, much less two of them. That day first day that it could claim that honor. It was also the last.

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_Yeah, so I hope you guys liked it. The ending kind of sucks but i've always been bad with endings. I got inspired to write this after i read another story that I have unfortunately forgotten what it was called and who it was by (yeah, real helpful, I know). So if you guys know any other story that has to do with Ravens then please tell me! I would like to give credit to the author that inspired me. Review if you liked it, glare at your computer if you didn't! _


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